funny (if not necessarily "passive-aggressive") notes from pissed-off people

Ah, the miracle of childbirth!

Isaac prefaces this by saying, “I feel bad for the person who posted this screed. I really do.”

But — and isn’t there always a but? — he adds: “The university library here has a HUGE laptop and gadget-theft problem, and there are signs everywhere warning people not to leave their stuff unattended. This guy left a $2000+ shiny Apple laptop just sitting on a table, with all of his super-sentimental irreplaceable pictures on it, and just walked away. And then expected nothing to happen. Really?”

I feel sorry for this dude, but was he using the laptop camera to record these videos? I assume he shot them with some kind of device that has a memory card (0r if it is an Apple product like an iPhone possibly a cloud backup). He should have at least some of his photos and videos unless he deleted everything off his phone/camera immediately after uploading it to his computer right? My iPhone has approximately 500 photos and videos of my cats shot over the last 6 months and this dude only has photos of his son’s birth on his computer?

Also, most college public spaces have huge smart phone/computer theft problems, so I agree with the sender. Super stupid to leave a MacBook Pro unattended in a library.

How does the person who sent this in know he just “got up and walked away” from his laptop? Seems to me we have the perp… Loser. He left it on a desk in a uni library – not a Starbucks. Bet he just went to retrieve a book, probably within eyeshot – hope the poor guy gets it back… Guess next time he should remember to take his laptop with him to the shelves… Even if his premmie baby should take front of mind, this sucks. Sad world man.

Anyone who leaves anything, anything at all, unattended for the briefest of moments, or who even turns their back for a moment is either naive or stupid. There are portable cable locks for laptops for a reason. Buy one, lock it to the table, the chair, your waist. I have found more than one wallet out back of my building that belonged to a woman who had her purse stolen while hanging off the back of the chair she was sitting in at a restaurant. Some places you literally cannot take your eyes off of your belongings for a moment without someone giving some consideration as to whether it is worth stealing, and if it is physically stealable in the two seconds you aren’t looking at it.

I feel such rage for this guy. I mean, yeah it was a dumb move to leave it unattended (especially since he didn’t have backups), but still. Thieves are scum to steal from people without regard for what they are taking from you. My house was broken into three years ago and my laptop was stolen. Thankfully, I had backups of my photos, but to this day I feel so angry about the idea of someone browsing through my family’s memories – the birth of my son, his first bath, his first captured smile, etc. And I feel equally angry at the idea of them casually wiping them away with no regard for whether or not I can ever see them again. Deciding for me that my memories are less important then the $100 they will probably get for my computer. I feel this guy’s pain. I hope the thief does see those photos and, if only for a moment, feels like a complete loser.

Well, it appears that there’s at least one photo left to document Gavin’s arrival…

I feel for this guy, and the person(s) that stole his laptop suck, but I agree–it’s just not smart to leave your expensive electronics unattended in public spaces. Didn’t he get the “Thieves go to college, too” speech at orientation?

Even back in the late 90′s, we were told over and over not to leave our laptop unattended. If you have to hit the head, take it with you. Plan your coffee refill. Return that call after you pack up and walk outside.

Nearly 25 years later, and this dude didn’t get the memo? Did he think his dad-aura made him immune?

Uhh….I don’t think the person is inferring that they now have no “legal” evidence of the child’s arrival into the world. For most parents, sentimental value of the pictures of the day their child is born is worth more than 1,000 Macbooks. And its obvious that you don’t have children if you don’t understand the amount of brain cells that are lost in the first few months of parenthood, and that forgetting things which should be common sense, become a regular occurrence. Regardless of the content on the device, it’s a little unnerving to know that there are actually people who blame the person who have their belongings stolen rather than the piece of shit thief. Its articles like this that give these undeserving assholes the feeling of entitlement when they see an opportunity to steal something. “Hmm….here’s someone else’s property that I didn’t earn or pay for, but someone left it here, so what do they expect?? I’m just teaching them a valuable lesson.”

I’m as much of a pessimistic asshole as it gets, and normally find great humor in seeing idiots fall victim to their own poor choices, but there comes a point where accountability falls on the douchebags with no morals instead of the productive members of society trying to live their life without having to worry about everything they’ve busted their ass for being stolen. There’s nothing more disgusting than a thief.

Yeah, thieves are assholes, but when did things change so that I no longer have to take any precautions for my own well-being and can rely on the kindness of strangers?

I have a friend who dropped by to see me before she left on a trip around the world. Unbeknownst to me, while we were sitting in my living room drinking beer, her unlocked bike was out on the side walk. And on that unlocked bike was a bag containing her plane ticket and passport. Unsurprisingly, the bike and bag were both gone when she left. Bike thief = asshole. Bike thief victim = complete and utter moron. I am no more interested in associating with morons than I am with assholes.

Tried to edit – can’t. Should have said “Unlocked bike thief victim = complete and utter moron”. Locking the bike and taking the bag inside and still having the bike stolen would have made her 100% victim, 0% idiot.

I don’t use Mac so I honestly don’t know, but wouldn’t they also have a myriad of programs in the Apple store that let you track, lock and if necessary, wipe your laptop? A program that will take a pic of the thief and mail it to you along with the last GPS coordinates when the thief opened it and had the pic taken?

While I agree that it’s a sad thing to lose those pictures, it would be much sadder to lose the subject. Be glad it was just the laptop.

And yes, shame on the owner as well for leaving something that expensive unattended for even a second. Honesty is becoming rarer with every year it seems.

LoJack for Laptops is one. There are others. Trouble is, the device has to be on and connected to a network in order to be detected, and MacBooks rely on WiFi since they don’t have built in cell connections. Thieves also know this, and therefore will not use the laptop. They will most likely pawn it right away. STOP Security Plates decals, although unsightly, are a pretty good option as they make it difficult to sell the item to potential buyers.

Those programs don’t do anything for a thief that actually knows what they’re doing. And fits perfectly well with Apple’s practice of bilking people out of money while giving them nothing in return.

If you’re going to steal a laptop and aren’t a complete idiot, you take out the hard drive and wipe it using another computer. That’s the easiest/fastest way to do it if you don’t want to waste time trying to guess the person’s screen unlock password. The GPS thing has a chance of working on a phone, but on a laptop absolutely not.

While I agree with your statement about thieves knowing what they’re doing and removing the hard drive, I’m guessing this was an opportunistic crime where the person had an impulse, took it and now has to figure out how to off it. That type of thief would be dumb enough to turn it on.

My son was a preemie and in an isolette for 7 weeks. No, we did not post photos of his earliest days on Facebook – the ones with him on a ventilator with tubes everywhere…so to Red Delicious…that’s not even a funny bet to make about the poor dad.

As much as I like this site, I fail to see the humor of making fun of a dad that feels bewildered and bereft by losing irreplaceable photos and moments of his prematurely born son. Stealing is not funny; it’s a major societal woe and an unfortunate side effect of the human condition. Seriously, I get the fury being projected from the dad…

Clearly, the sender took much delight in his apparent handiwork. People suck!

As a premie mom myself I can see how his mind may have been somewhere else and honestly he may not have posted pics of his son in a fragile state all over social media. These aren’t the kind of pictures most people want to see and honestly I had trouble looking at them at first until I had some distance. I normally love passive aggressive notes but this one is making me sad.
I took many of my pictures on my nice DSLR and loaded them to my computer and with everything that has gone one they haven’t been backed up.

No one deserves to have their computer stolen. Some douche stole it and I hope they saw this letter.

I’m surprised that he never mentioned the loss of his work. Presumably this person is a grad student/worker at the school.

Having to redo months/years’ worth of work should be a hell of a lot more upsetting than losing some pictures of a kid in the NICU (of which he clearly has a plenty of since he posted one with the letter).

As a born and bred New Englander here. Just an FYI kermit, New Jersey isn’t considered a New England State. New England is comprised of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. No one else gets to share in the moniker, especially New Jersey.

Playing the kid card might get you somewhere if you’re dealing with an older student, but probably not with one of today’s over entitled youths.

Are you kidding? The first moments of any baby’s life are sacrosanct to their parents. Even if said baby is in an isolette. As a mom to preemies, yes, my babies did not look healthy and robust. Yes, they were crying from being overwhelmed all the time. Yes, I was in tears from no sleep and because breastfeeding was not working. But those newborn pictures and memories are still precious to me.

To be perfectly fair to all concerned (and in keeping with the college theme!) going to a frat party (or a bar or a house-party) and getting black-out drunk is the sexual equivalent of leaving your laptop unattended in a place known for laptop thefts (regardless of your “hotness” level.)

Opie, that they even can think you are not joking…this is what saddens me…can no one detect tone at all?
RULE OF THUMB, PALS: If someone talks in complete, canned, perfect cliche, (with almost perfect grammar, save for a non-capitalized “it’s” at the start), maybe, just maybe, they are being sarcastic? (Okay, maybe sardonic…but who isn’t the slightest bit mean? You? You just called someone you don’t know a name, or you thumbed it up…you were mean and angry. Just THEN, too. You have something in common with the person you are being mean to, huh?) Continuing with your Thumb’s Rules: If a poster knows the difference between “its” and “it’s”, could you take two breaths, THINK, take an educated guess (that they are an educated person)…and they are perhaps reminding us of what USED TO BE OKAY. (LEST WE FORGET). They have a message that just flew over your dumb head. You dumb dumbo. You silly goose. (I’m mean, too. Look at those awful things I just said to you…horrible!)

Just try and remember to stop and ask yourself, are they serious, or are the alluding to something bigger? Like, if someone says something that seems to be taken straight from the list of “100 Things to Say to Be an Ass”, could it be possible that maybe they are not a douche? Think of the wonderful possibilities of Opie, maybe he is a Spy for Good. Maybe he is a Secret Smarty. It’s even possible, all you thumb-uppers to the knee-jerk responders, that your reaction is more offensive than this human reminder of what has been said and reacted to so many times before.

Does anyone REALLY think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell (hey, I just made that up! hey, I’m joking and it’s so silly that I even have to make sure to tell you that I am…) that Opie invented this idea, that it just popped into his head, or that he just copied and pasted it from his favorite website: Douchebags Unite! Maybe he is not a douchebag. Maybe he just likes Andy Kaufman. Maybe he is trying to stimulate all that gray matter in your noggin.

Rock on Opie. I’m still hot. You can rape me anytime. (I’m actually not one of those people who is into role-play-rape. I am one of those people who is into saying the wrong thing to remind people that the wrong thing used to be said all the time. And I am one who likes to push the envelope.) Bravo, Opie. You are a smartybear. You can do even better, though. Find a way to get them to realize (just a spark of a hint?) that what you’re doing isn’t what you’re doing.

I wish we could start color-coordinating tone in these faceless comments, texts, messages. Here is my idea:
Orange-I am JOKING, PEOPLE
Red-I am mad and it’s serious
Green-I am jokingly mad because I’m jealous
Blue-I am sad and it’s serious
Invisible-I am smart enough to write this in my diary and put it under my bed where it belongs.
Purple-You need to GET me. Think about me. Do you know who I am? Do you ever want to hate someone you haven’t met? Are you in your car, cursing at someone from behind 3,000 pounds of steel? Or are you at your desk, hiding behind distance and space?
Yellow: Piss on you. These are words of hate.
Pink: Love and Unicorns, covered in starsparkles.

Opie…you’re smart enough…can you get an app going? One that lets us color-code our typed, rudimentary attempts at communication to at least give some detection of tone. We don’t even have italics anymore. This, to me, is a greater disgrace than all things on this thread combined.

I won’t be back to check this. You can find me at FIRST-WORLD PROBLEMS, a group on FB. If I have misunderstood you. I’d like to know what you meant. I think I would learn something new.

Truly, Donna Jean (my true human name, naked in the ethersphere…)

P.S. To the person who wrote the letter and lost the laptop: That really sucks. I’m sorry you lost your PREEMIE baby photos. I’m also sorry that you are sleep deprived and so not making all the decisions you need to stay on top of, like backing up priceless images and safeguarding your valuables. Don’t let this habit spread to forgetting things required of a decent, caring father. Remember to double-check that car seat. Burp him after the bottle. Change the diaper. Don’t forget THESE things, too.

Try your best to stay alert, I know it’s hard, but as a narcoleptic whose entire life is like having a preemie every day forever (but who can never have a child, either, and would KILL for a preemie with no baby photos included), I’m telling you straight from my heart’s heart, you gotta trammel through this. And you gotta remember, before there were computers, people’s houses burned down and they lost all their photo albums. And before there were photo albums, people had to rely on a sketch or a silhouette to remember a loved one. And also, just to be fair, YOUR BABY IS ALIVE!!!!!! YAY!!!! Have you any reason WHATSOEVER to not be immersed in joy? If so, you might have postpardom depression, you might not know how to cope with your life right now…and if you don’t know something, PLEASE don’t guess. Outsource that information. Ask other preemie parents for advice.

And look, the Universe did this to you on purpose, your job is to figure out what the lesson is. You are meant to gain from this, not lose. And you are the best father you can be when you have nothing negative bottled up inside you. Write a letter to Gabriel, detailing the way you felt these last few weeks/months upon becoming a father, include tiny details of things you realized, things he did, places you went, how your heart is bursting with a love you never realized possible. Print it, seal it, store it with your car title and your passport, and give it to him when he is 29 years old. That is a better use of your time than to compose and post an angry notice.

Listen, I don’t know you, but if you are a human being, I will always give you the benefit of the doubt. You are allowed to suffer as much as you want in this world. To deny you that is an egregious act of non-compassion. But examine at your threshold for despair…and remember you are the exact replica for Gabriel’s future self. You are teaching him how to be. Don’t turn him into a little drama-queen: don’t teach him to be outraged beyond belief about things that matter but are not life-and-death, are not true horror; Because you deaden our recognition of a real atrocity when you screech and wail about a bummer.

I can’t imagine how many thousands of parents to lost babies would read this letter of yours and say “Fuck the pics, I wish I could hold my child one more time.” You won, do you see? You write as though your house burned down with your son inside. Stop that. Look: He is outside, napping on the lawn on a lovely blanket from your mother-in-law, in front of your nice place where you live with your family, with the sun on his face. How can you do anything other than smile? (Can’t you see, you besmirch the sanctity of your happiness and this wondrous gift of a child by whining about a lost computer and photos.

And the person who stole it, they may have held a child once, against your assumption. They may have lost that child horrifically, and then dropped into severe depression and then self-medicated with those old pain pills from that ankle injury and then finally became a homeless drug addict in a pit of DESPAIR. Can you really hurt them any more? Nah. They might, just maybe, possibly have a suffering that’s beyond your wildest dreams. You owe them the benefit of the doubt. Or…maybe your computer saved their child…it’s possible. So. Was it worth it, to put your anger in a message and send it out into the world?)

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are worried about anti-theft or recovery technology, I’ve pretty much told you I didn’t use any. But what I do have are absolutely no hope of getting my laptop back; I’ll just go ahead and play this preemie-card I was dealt after a surprisingly short pregnancy. A card that will make me a nightmare for pretty much everybody. If you keep my laptop, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, I will not find you, and I will not trouble you further.”

ValTrex, I’ve been assfucked by a crackhead on more than one occasion, and I generally found the experience quite enjoyable. Looks like you’ve got some bitch on your face, there… perhaps you shouldn’t be so quick with the judgement and scorn, darlin’. Smoochies!

Omg! The same thing happened to me!
My wad of cash ($1200) and was stolen at the library on Jan. 30th. I too left a note highlighting the what and where. I also think a human took it. Maybe this is the same person??? This person also did not seem to care that the cash was mine or that I was going to donate it to charity. Now there won’t be any team shirt for ex-porn stars who found Jesus and medical marijuana bowling team. What kind of person takes cash sitting there? I also wonder if they will be happy when he or she spend my cash or if that human feels my pain. And what about the Holey Holy Roller Bowler Bowlers? I’m so upset. I don’t know whether to screw, pray, play or smoke my pain away.

I will bet one trillion dollars this person left their computer completely unattended for a significant amount of time.

Sure, no one should have taken it, but you chose to not take very good care of it. The expected result when you leave valuable things in plain view and unattended, you will be relieved of them. Baby pictures or not.

The note writer is just as much to blame for their carelessness. I don’t know about everyone else but I tend to pay attention to the things that are important to me.

Okay. On the one hand, MacBook dude, not cool leaving your computer unattended. On the other? I get it. Not only did he lose some very precious shit, but the knowledge that some fucktard has probably poked around in his private pictures is incredibly skeezy and unsettling. Urgh.

This blame the victim thing is kind of lame. Should this guy have watched his laptop more closely? Yes. Does that make it ok for someone to steal it? No.

When I was in my early 20s I worked at a restaurant and was usually off after the buses quit running (didn’t own a car). One night I was walking from work to my boyfriends house, a whole 15 minute walk, when I was mugged. When I returned to work some of my co-workers asked why my boyfriend hadn’t walked me home. This pissed me off.

First of all it was like 1 or 2 am and he was sleeping and secondly I and every other human being should be safe to walk the streets any time of day or night. This was the city I grew up in, went to school in, and paid taxes in so why the hell shouldn’t I feel ok to take a 15 minute walk after work? Why weren’t more people outraged that I got mugged than were suggesting my boyfriend should’ve walked me home. And by the way I was mugged by 3 people so even having my boyfriend there may not have done any good.

I guess what I’m trying to say is stop blaming the victim and start getting pissed at the criminals.

I don’t think most people are blaming the victim. I think most people are just saying we have to share the world with scumbags who steal, rape and kill, so be smart about protecting your property and body. We shouldn’t have to lock our doors, but we do because there are people who don’t care that they have no right to enter your home. Standing on principle isn’t going to save your life if you are pulled into alley or if someone kicks in your front door. People were put off by the fact that your boyfriend didn’t walk you home because as women we are more vulnerable to attacks, and we do as a society in general expect men to look out for women, especially in relationships and marriage. I don’t think most people think you deserved to be mugged, but that you put yourself in a terrible position and the gentlemanly thing to do would have been for him to get up and walk you home. Unfortunately, boys often aren’t raised to be that kind of man anymore (but there are still some out there). But we all get to decide what’s important to us in a relationship, and if it didn’t bother you that your boyfriend didn’t walk you home, then don’t let it bother when others feel differently. Personally, I expect a certain amount of chivalry in my marriage.

The people making fun of this guy with so much nastiness are blaming him. Yeah, we all “know” we shouldn’t leave electronics out in public places, but I’m sure that almost everyone has done it to one extent or another. I’m sure that at one point, you’ve forgotten to lock your front door, or left your window down on your car. If your stuff gets stolen, it still sucks for you, and it’s still the thief’s fault. Period. No compassion here, even people talking about “playing the preemie card” – you realize that parents of premature babies are often diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after their children are released from the NICU? But people in these comments think it’s down right funny that this person would be upset that photos of his baby’s first few week’s of life have been taken from him, weeks where he may have taken a hell of a lot of photos because he didn’t know if his child would live.

So he didn’t back up his shit? He left his laptop out? Does that make him worthy of vitriol? He made a poor judgment. But someone took advantage of that moment of poor judgment and broke the law. Why isn’t THAT person getting all the vitriol in the comments here?

These days employers are required to provide transportation if their workers aren’t off work in time to get the last bus/train. So you’re employer should shoulder the blame not your boyfriend for your getting mugged when you had to walk home at 1am. (at lest those are the labor laws were I am)

I’ve been mugged too. The guy I was dating was too tired to walk me home. What happened? I defended myself, scared off my attacker, and ended up with a huge bruise on my butt and a great lesson. DON’T WALK ALONE IN THE DARK. It’s not our human right to be safe. We were not even put here to have fun. We are here to suffer. We are all victims. Some of us just milk it for all we can…while others puke out the pain and move on. I wouldn’t have been mad at your boyfriend. I would have asked if you were okay, and then I would have scolded you, “Don’t you ever do that again, this is not a safe world!”

I work at a suburban university in southeast Michigan. People here leave their expensive and not so expensive laptops unattended on our desks all the time. All the time. I often drop my mouth in sheer wonder.

I feel really bad for the laptop owner and the thief is a piece of crap for well, being a thief, but you should not leave your belonging lying around like that. Especially in public libraries and University libraries where anyone can take it while your gone for even a few minutes. I remember seeing people leave expensive laptops all the time unattended at my university’s library. I even had complete strangers ask me to watch them for them. How do you know me? How do you know I am not a thief who will run off with it the second you leave? I am not a thief and would never steal, luckily for them, and I did watch their stuff for them to be nice but dude, don’t trust anyone with your expensive gadgets. I can imagine it pretty maddening to lose such valuable pictures (my aunt and uncle had their home broken into years ago when my cousin was still a baby and they stole the video camera containing his baby videos- they never got them back either and that was some 19 years ago). But the odds of getting the pictures back now is slim to none most criminals could care less about the computer content besides bank info. Unfortunately all they can do now is be more careful and vigilante with their laptops and phones.

I work at a university library and see this all time. We have students who leave laptops unattended for hours. I have even seen a wallet left with credit card sitting next to it. If I see the student doing this, I try to warn them that we do have occasional thefts and they seem surprised at the very notion.

Personally, it’s not the detail I object to, it’s the fact that kids are minors.

And you have parents who get angry and upset if their public social media photos go viral for some reason and their parenting comes into question. I think there was a story some time ago on Jezebel about some asshat who allegedly trying to combat her community’s xenophobia by posting pictures of her adopted kids on Facebook, holding signs with all the mean things strangers have said to them. And when Gawker got a hold of this “story”, the woman’s relatives were all upset at how come her kids’ public pictures are being used to criticize her parenting. Well how about not posting pictures of them at all on social media. The people who are your real friends know damn well what your kids look like. And when they’re old enough, they can decide for themselves if they want to be Internet poster people for some cause or not.

Perhaps if you give no shits about your friends’ kids, you aren’t a very good friend and should move on? Do you get upset when your non-parent friends post photos of their lives? Or is it JUST your friends with children who shouldn’t be allowed to share their lives online?

I don’t mind seeing pictures of my friends’ kids/pets/whatev. But when the ONLY thing they’re posting is kids/pets/whatev, and what little precious’ latest bowel movement looked like, and how PROUD they are that they took PICTURES of their little crotch-sneeze’s now ejected stomach contents…no. Just no.

Or perhaps, R.A., those people who aren’t willing to interact with other adults about anything other than their spawn are the not-so-good friends. Either that, or they have nothing to offer the world but the fruit of their wombs and aren’t…actually, there is nothing I can say here that isn’t incredibly rude, so I’ll just leave it alone.

Personally I count myself as being incredibly fortunate in that I get maybe two kid pictures a year in my feed because I have friends who have many interests outside of the tedium of child-rearing.

I feel wonderful for his kid, who will now not have such embarrassing photos floating around to haunt him later. I know that if there were hundreds of photos of me in that state, I’d not want anyone to see them.

I get why this guy is upset–I would be too, and baby boot camp in the NICU is a better excuse than most people have for a boneheaded mistake like leaving a piece of valuable property unattended in a public place–but dude, you did not lose “irreplaceable memories.” Your memories are in the same place they always were–your head. You lost some photos and videos–and you clearly still have at least one (since it’s there on the sign), and I’d bet you shared at least a few with the kid’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., so you can get copies of those back. It’ll be enough. People were able to love their kids before it was easy (or even possible) to document every burp, diaper, or PICC line with a photo or video. The thief didn’t cause “indescribable pain” or take “so much” from you, your wife, and your son–he took your laptop. You’ll live.

I don’t think you get to judge the emotions he and his wife attach to photos they can’t replace. Only he does. The implication in your post is that he is placing some intense value on the laptop, but he isn’t, is he? He didn’t talk about his school work, the financial loss, or anything but the photos he took of his baby at a time when he wasn’t sure if that baby would live. As I mentioned in another comment, parents of premature babies are often diagnosed with PTSD after their children are in the NICU. Losing the photos could very well be a devastating loss for him. You can’t assign value to his photographs for him.

Actually, the moment he posted a passive-aggressive note emphasizing his emotions and horror – THE HORROR – of losing his laptop that he left out unattended and un-backed-up, is also the moment Alex, and anyone else, got the right to judge his emotions.

Yes, it sucks he lost his laptop. Yes, the thief is scum and deserves 100% of the blame. But instead of going back to his son and wife, and spending time with them, and making new memories, he decided instead to neglect them both a little longer and write this note which probably won’t ever be read by the thief. Probably on the new MacBook he just bought… and probably might have even left it unattended again in the university library, while he printed out his note and posted it.

I lost my hard drive recently, and to say that I “didn’t really care about” anything on the computer is BS. It’s pretty shitty to say that to someone who’s had a loss that could be devastating to them.

Of course I cared about it. I’ve been through a sort of grieving process, especially over my honeymoon pictures. Thank goodness my kids’ dad has a copy of all their baby pictures, so I got those back. But I also lost work files, my own childhood pictures and old family photos from my great-grandparents that I spent countless hours scanning (and will now have to do again if my dad can find the originals for me), and some cross stitch designs I created. Every time I remember something else I lost, it’s a punch in the gut.

I do take responsibility for the loss, but it isn’t because I didn’t care. The big problem is that I have major insomnia problems plus bipolar disorder, and I find myself in a scattered state most days, with normal daily stuff difficult to manage. So things that aren’t important right now this very second do often get overlooked or put off. (Also reminds me of being a new parent!)

This situation just means that I’m not perfect, and when life is hitting you hard, it’s very easy to put things off and think that you’ll have time to handle them later.

Let’s just put a touch of perspective on this, though, from the standpoint of those who are often asked to perform miracles to get data back.

A hard drive is a disk of either aluminum or glass coated with a magnetic film spinning at several thousand revolutions per minute. It is read from and written to by a moving apparatus that travels a fraction of a millimeter from the surface of this thin film.

Drives, by their very nature, are a volatile place to hold precious data. Nearby magnets can corrupt massive sectors of data, an errant bump can cause the read/write heads to smash into the platters, the motor can seize up and fail to spin the disk, and the controller board can fail. Add software issues to this, like viruses, and then add external failures, like power outages, accidental deletions, and improper shutdowns, and it’s a minor miracle that data manages to stay intact.

I’ve had life kick me in the nuts before. I’ve gone through several OS reinstallations caused by viruses from trying to clean other systems. I’ve had drives die on me, I’ve rolled chairs over DVD’s, and I’ve left thumb drives near magnets. These are reasons that you make a backup. They’re also reasons you make multiple backups.

I’m not saying that you needed to have a stack of DVD’s with all the pictures backed up hidden in a safety deposit box, but a less-volatile, external storage isn’t a bad idea. This is coming from someone who, like you, had to learn it the hard way.

A tip from someone who has experienced the problem of drives dying: Windows 7 has an automated scheduled backup. An external hard disk left connected to the system can be used as a very basic backup drive. Control Panel, then Backup and Restore, then set up a schedule. Yes, it’s saving to another volatile hard disk, but it’s better than nothing.

An even easier solution: don’t store anything important on your local hard drive to begin with, so you don’t have to back it up regularly. Store everything you need access to on a cloud service. I like Dropbox and One Drive (formerly Sky Drive) because they are just like folders on your computer. They’re free, too.

Madrias, I *generally* agree with you, but even those systems aren’t perfect. My house was burglarized and guess what the thieves decided to pick up? My external hard drive. All of the *really* important stuff was also backed up in the cloud, but that was the item that infuriated me the most. It couldn’t have been worth much on the street (I only paid $50 for it), and it was a very annoying loss. I understood taking the MacBook, the TV, the iPod (well, sort of…it was a really old one I just used to listen to music in the bedroom), etc., but grabbing the external hard drive made me think of them snickering “now she’ll REALLY be ticked off!” Bonus points that I had it stashed in a drawer in the closet, so they had to dig to find it.

I had a netbook stolen about a year ago, from the local public library. Put it on the table for a second, turned around to grab something, and when I turned back, it was gone.
Luckily everything was backed up. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that someone took my personal property and did God knows what with it.

I had a laptop ripped right from my hands in a coffee shop a few years ago. I was sitting in an armchair, working away on a research project, the darn thing was even plugged into the wall. Next thing I know this teenage boy lunged at me, tore it away from me and off the charger, then sprinted away abd two other kids followed him from the other side of the shop. It’s ridiculous.

Yep, feel bad for the guy (truly), and yep, thieves suck. But these types of thieves exist because people (at coffee shops, at libraries, etc) leave things unattended for them to steal. They are crimes of opportunity: so, stop providing the opportunity.

I left my car in a mall parking lot once, and when I came back after three hours of shopping, it was gone. Of course, it’s MY fault, because I should have known that people steal cars in mall parking lots, and leaving my car there for three hours while shopping was a stupid thing to do. Yes, it was locked, but the car was old, had no alarm, and I’m sure the windows broke easily and the ignition was easy to hotwire, which also adds to my blame since my old car wasn’t as theft-proof as the new BMWs are. The cops didn’t even bother with trying to locate my car, because, after all, I was the idiot for allowing someone to steal it in the first place.

See, the difference is that it is really easy to do the smart thing when it comes to the laptop. You really can’t avoid taking your car places and parking it. That’s what cars are for. But you can pack up your laptop to take it with you.

The equivalent car analogy to what this guy did is if you left the keys in the ignition and the door open.

It’s not this guy’s fault that his laptop was stolen, and I completely understand why he’s pissed, but the crime was so easy to prevent and so obvious that he should have realized the potential for theft and acted accordingly.

The difference with having a vehicle stolen in a parking lot where numerous people have also presumably safely parked their cars and absent-mindedly leaving a laptop around poor/opportunistic students is significant. If you can’t understand that, then I can’t help you.

There really is no public place that is theft proof – and this is not new. almost 40 years ago, when I was in seminary I left my bible on a table in the commuter student’s lounge and 45 minutes later when I went back after class to retrieve it it was gone, and all the pleading notes i put in the lounge and the student news sheet were in vain. Yep, a future minister stole another future minister’s bible.

It’s crazy how many of these comments essentially blame this guy for leaving his laptop… He made someone steal his property? It’s insane that we just accept stealing, as if it’s a normal and okay part of life. It’s not. It’s despicable. It’s not his fault for “creating the opportunity” or because he left it “knowing that libraries have a problem with theft”. It’s the thief’s fault. Blaming the victim? C’mon, people.

The point is precisely that in that environment, it is normal and a frequent occurrence, so vigilance is warranted. There were/are signs warning people that this is what happens in that environment.

You don’t get to complain about falling down an open manhole when there’s signs everywhere warning you about the open manhole. And pulling the kid card – with an added picture, no less! – does make the guy sound like a douche himself. I have a kid so you shouldn’t have stolen my laptop? What does having a kid have to do with the wrongness of stealing a laptop?

I do hope the guy gets his laptop back. It’s no fun having stuff stolen. When my oldest brother Paul was doing drugs he stole my VCR and boombox that I had bought with money I made babysitting to sell for drug money. He also stole our parent’s police scanner. When Todd was drinking money would go missing from my wallet. (To this day he denies stealing from me but I wasn’t the only one who had money go missing and he suddenly went from broke to having money for vodka.) And after letting my brother Mark stay here with the woman he abandoned his real family for we found a slew of clothing missing. (Our walk in closet is attached to the upstairs bathroom and you can go in from the bathroom. She’d lock the outer closest door and the bathroom door. Some fake furs, a leather jacket, and a bunch of other stuff went missing during their time here but we didn’t know until they had left and could get into the closet.)

On the other, he really should’ve uploaded those photos and videos to other places. The stuff that means the most to me right away gets uploaded to Flickr and Facebook so I have two different places to retrieve it should my hard drive crash. Plus I also try to keep them on both my laptop and desktop.

Of course the person who stole the computer is a jerk, I don’t want to make it sound like just because the computer owner was irresponsible he had it coming. However, I never leave my laptop unattended when I’m at my college’s library. It’s a Mac too, the first computer I’ve bought with my own money, and my life is practically dependent on it. I don’t have money to buy a new one so I don’t take risk. When I need to leave my table (or giant comfy chairs we have on the bottom floor) to go hunt in the book stacks or go to the cafe inside the library to get a tea, I always take my laptop with me. I’ll leave my books and other materials at my spot and ask someone near by to keep an eye on my things, but never my computer because I don’t like putting that kind of responsibility on someone else. We have signs on the walls warning against leaving your laptops unattended and one of the security guards will come leave a note on your computer if you do leave it alone to refrain from that because the college is not responsible. I feel bad for the person who had their laptop stolen, I do, but they should really be more careful.

I work in a university library and the things we have people turn in that someone left behind are crazy. People will just leave wallets, purses, computers, anything sitting around. On some things like flash drives you tend to get more people turning them in (because rather worthless and a lot of students can commiserate with having lost those) but on expensive things like phones and computers… A bunch get stolen every year, even with signs posted everywhere not to leave things.

That being said, as someone who has been burglarized the week before finals and lost all my papers and such, yeah, it really blows to have something stolen.

i love how people think that their children are so special and important that other people should bend over backwards to accommodate them. so he lost some pictures of his new born child, big whoop, if h think thats so important why doesn’t he make another one and take some pictures. it obviously take less brain cells to make a child then it dose to protect one of the most stolen items in the world. i bet this guy has a “baby on board” sticker and expects traffic to part like the red sea every time his little parasite is “on board”. this guy got what he diserved, as for the guy who stole it, noit only did he get some quick cash but also got the satisfaction of ruining a douche bag “breeders” happy little moment. i hope gavin ends up being a heroin addict when he grows up

OMG, What is your problem? Why are you so mean? Do you love no one in this world? Is there nothing or no one who gives you pure joy that you cannot comprehend others loving someone? Does it make you feel powerful when you behave in an unfeeling fashion?

If I am going to chastise someone, it would be Issac, the OP. What kind of person would see such an anguished note and think to post it on PAN for possible comic effect?

skaggypizzafacebaron, I come here to read Funny and/or Clever comments about people’s notes. You are not funny. I had wanted to post a comment about how delicious-looking that little preemie is, but now I can’t because you have ruined the mood. boo hoo. go away

Maybe I’m being dumb, but where in the note does it say that the stolen computer was “a $2000+ shiny Apple laptop” as Isaac states. That sounds awfully specific to me. So this spawns two theories- 1. Isaac is the thief or 2. Isaac knows the victim and is a bad friend. What do we think, peanut gallery? Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I’m going with 2.

Exactly. The cheapest Macbook Pro is around $1300 and are notorious for being more expensive than just about any other brand. No Mac laptop is cheaper than $1000 unless you’re buying it used from the classifieds or back alleys.

Ok, yes, you’re an idiot if you leave your laptop unattended, yes, you are still a victim if some giant asswipe steals it from you.

Surprised I haven’t seen a lot on the other big issue here, though. Why didn’t he take the time to back up his files??? I don’t want to hear this excuse about “not having time”. If they are important enough to you, you will back them up. Easiest way? Sign up for Dropbox and drag/drop the folder with your pics into your Dropbox folder. It takes only minutes, and you can go do something else (like play with your son) while waiting for them to sync.

While having your computer stolen involves someone else being a deliberate asshole, there are many other ways you could lose your file. What if you dropped your comp? Lost it? Hard drive got corrupted? Accidentally deleted your files? Or your son deleted them while playing around? Got a virus? Short-circuited?

And before anyone says “It’s a Mac, they’re immune!!!” – no computer is immune, and that foolhardy attitude is a stupid excuse not to take literally five minutes to back up your shit.

So basically, yes, he was a victim that his comp got stolen and I seriously feel for the guy (being quite dependent on my laptop myself), but he should have had his stuff backed up, even if for other reasons.

The comment editor has been broken for a while. And while reminding people to back up their data is great, saying it’s easy/convenient is not.

The truth is that it IS a pain in the ass to create (multiple) backups if you want to do it properly. External hard drives (unless they’re solid state) easily fall off tables, especially if you have pets that wander around the house.

“Free” services like Dropbox are an extremely bad idea as a backup. Never mind the obvious fact that Dropbox could decide to close its doors or sell the business to somebody else, thus causing you to risk losing your data. There is also the huge issue of data security/privacy. If you bother to read the Dropbox Terms of Service, you probably won’t be pleased with what terms they impose. Even the most casual glance tells you that they scan the content of your files, check for duplicates and won’t keep duplicate files. That’s not okay.

The only way to really back up your stuff in a secure way is on a DVD or solid state external drive. And that is a pain in the ass to remember to do. Let’s be honest here and stop shilling for “free” services.

All of that is true, the best way is multiple backups with hard drive etc. but the fact remains that “I didn’t have time for a backup!!!” when he could at least have done Dropbox is bullshit. If it was that important he could have found five minutes. In this case, it would have been all he needed.

Total agreement, Raichu. I’ve had that “oh well you obviously DESERVED it!” shit pulled on me far too many times for things entirely not my fault. (I was not a popular person ~at all~ during my schooling days; people kept breaking into my locker, cutting my bike lock and throwing my bike into traffic in front of the school, stealing my coat and boots during snowstorms, and almost every single adult I talked to about it told me I clearly deserved it for being such a rotten kid. So yeah, I’m a LITTLE SENSITIVE.) If I ever hear someone pull that shit in front of me off the internet, I will punch them in the goddamn face, I swear.